There has been discussion here about about inappropriate behavior not related to public office. What we haven’t discussed is inappropriate behavior by a politician that is related to public office. Massachusetts State Representative Ryan Fattman recently said that raped and beaten illegal immigrants should be afraid to go to the police. He offered this bit of wisdom when being interviewed by the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, emphasis mine:
Asked if he would be concerned that a woman without legal immigration status was raped and beaten as she walked down the street might be afraid to report the crime to police, Mr. Fattman said he was not worried about those implications.
“My thought is that if someone is here illegally, they should be afraid to come forward,” Mr. Fattman said. “If you do it the right way, you don’t have to be concerned about these things,” he said referring to obtaining legal immigration status.
One posting that really hit the point home.
That anyone would just wave aside the rape or assault of any human, is enough to me to disqualify them for politics. The sad fact is that this is what passes for mainstream in the Republican Party today. No one is calling for this man’s resignation, no one is pointing out that he has a completely wrongheaded and skewed view of our system of law. He is just one of a group of Republicans bashing Gov. Patrick for not signing on to a failed and flawed program.
Well, enough is enough and I challenge anyone in the MA GOP to stand by his remarks. Should Fattman resign?
…though I hope there is a major Democratic campaign invasion into his district next time around. In principle I believe a politician’s remarks should not lead to resignation, regardless of how stupid or offensive they are.
If holding bizarro world views like this isn’t enough for resignation, nothing ever done by a politician is.
Well, except maybe this guy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byron_Looper
Giving people jobs in exchange for contributions harms the public less than letting potential rapists know that raping certain people is ok in your book.
If there’s open talk of Wiener resigning for lewd photos, certainly this one has much more merit as it actually effects his constituents in a tangible way.
“He’s an elected congressman that serves at the will of his constituents. So long as he hasn’t broken any law, he doesn’t have to go anywhere, and you can bet your bottom dollar his constituents will forgive and forget this incident so long as no laws were broken.”
Merely pointing out the fact that this is far worse than what Wiener did, yet I don’t hear nearly as many people calling for Fattman’s resignation. My hope is Fattman’s constituents won’t take too kindly to what Fattman had to say and will make it difficult for him to stay.
Let’s take the illegal alien status out of the equation, just to try to understand the underlying point.
Should any of these hypothetical victims of rape and beating be afraid to report the crime to the police:
1. Someone wanted for investigation of robbery
2. A prison escapee
3. A person late on their child support payments
4. A known drug dealer
5. Someone with multiple unpaid parking and moving violations
A person can be both a victim and a violator. Should there be a law against apprehending a person for a crime or violation when that person comes forward as a crime victim?
If so, how long should such a grace period last?
I believe the point that people are trying to make here — and that is being lost in the context — is that they don’t believe persons should be punished for being in the country illegally. Is that a correct interpretation?
I can’t speak for everyone, but I certainly don’t believe that the punishment for being in the country illegally should be rape. Nor do I believe that there should exist a class of people who should be raped with impunity.
That’s just me, though. Clearly Fattman disagrees.
I agree there shouldn’t be a class of people who can be raped with impunity. But, carrying out that logic doesn’t lead to a great outcome…
If the illegal alient reports being raped, the outcome can be that the victim is deported and their rapist is prosecuted. Would there be a problem with that?
Would there be a problem with the traffic violator being made to pay their tickets and the rapist being prosecuted?
How about the prison escapee being incarcerated and the rapist being prosecuted?
I’m wondering, too, about the secure communities requirements. I’ve read that police need to report arrests to the feds, but I’ve not read that they are required to report “reporters” to the feds.
You say:
But that’s not how it actually works. What people are worried about – and, in fact, what apparently actually happens – is that illegal aliens suffer violence, but don’t report it because they don’t want to be deported. They figure that the violence has already occurred, so why make things worse by being deported on top of it. As a result, violent people remain at large, perhaps committing additional violent acts. And there is definitely a problem with that.
It isn’t as if illegal immigrants would be the only people to contact authorities. And so now we’re back to my original question.
Is it only those who break immigration laws that should be given a “no arrest” grace period so that they can report being a victim of a crime to authorities? I believe not.
That woul leave parole offendees, traffic violators, and others of interest to law enforcement in that special class of people who can be “raped with impunity”.
You state the problem is that some people won’t come forward leavign a violent criminal on the streets. So, address the root cause and call for a “no arrest” grace period for anyone who reports a crime.
Just because someone makes a complete and utter jackass of themselves is not a reason to resign. If their constituents are offended enough, they will be fired at the next election.
Unless a law has been broken, elective officials should be free to make jackasses out of themselves regularly so that the public can make better, more informed decisions.
Rep. Fattman’s comments display, at best, a lack of understanding that we are a nation of laws. It’s ironic that a legislator would hold such ignorant views. He seems more in tune with some Middle Eastern countries, in which many women who are raped are then jailed for adultery.
I read the Mother Jones story, and Ryan Fattman doubles down on idiocy.
Well, if you didn’t walk down that dimly lit street…
He blames the victim of the crime. Just obscene.
As evidence of the proposition that Representative Fattman is more pro-immigrant than Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio (low bar much?), he tells Mother Jones that he has filed legislation “to crack down on businesses that exploit undocumented workers.”
Except that’s not what his bill (House 2819) does. It makes it a crime for an employer “to knowingly falsify employment or citizenship documents of any alien in the commonwealth” and sets out penalties for employers who do that. (Isn’t that a crime already?) The bill definitely does not make it a crime for an employer to exploit undocumented workers.
So we’re back where we started. If an employer exploits an undocumented worker by, say, refusing to pay wages owed, under Representative Fattman’s logic, the worker should be afraid to come forward and report the wage theft, because being in the U.S. without documentation is itself a crime.
Since the Representative’s position is that undocumented immigrants shouldn’t be here, it’s rather misleading for him to say they shouldn’t be exploited.
I am sure he regrets the remark. Even if he doesn’t, though, it’s just a dumb comment.
***
The junker’s touching faith in the local _Polizei_ may perhaps be connected with the nature of the locality:
It seems possible that Señorita Linda Indocumentada might be a little more reluctant to rely on the discretion of strangers.
Mais que sçay-je?
Happy days.
It’s a lot more than that, I’d say.
I just started up a petition:
http://www.change.org/petitions/demand-that-the-mass-gop-clarify-its-policy-on-undocumented-rape-victims
I also happen to think that Rep. Fattmann should resign if he can’t use his public office responsibly. Fact is he’s encourage predators to go after undocumented women, and discouraging undocumented women from reporting crimes. This isn’t a hypothetical. People pose as ICE agents, rob, and assault unauthorized migrants all the time, including here in Mass.:
http://www.citizenorange.com/orange/2007/09/preying-on-migrant-fear-impers.html
This is what happens when you elect a kid to a position that should be held by an adult. You get immaturity.